Exploring Filter Materials / Grade 5 / Jersey City, NJ

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Students test a variety of filter materials to see how well they remove particles and color from contaminated water.

Reflection Questions

What do you see Marlene doing during this class to help her students develop English proficiency?

Marlene often pauses to teach new words and their meanings to her students, and always encourages them to expand simple verbal answers into ones with more detail.

When a student replies to her question with the answer, “She wanted to take the turtle”, Marlene prompts her to continue and the student adds, “out of the dirty river.” (0:29)

When describing one of the water samples, Marlene asks, “What is another word we could use for 'it looks white'?" Then she suggests terms like “cloudy” and “foggy.” (2:31)

When one student defines property as “something that somebody owns,” Marlene points out that properties is a “multiple meaning word” that can also be used to describe how something behaves. (4:08-4:23)

What evidence do you see that Marlene encourages students to be open minded and value learning from failure?

Marlene encourages students to change their minds as they learn, and reassures them when their predictions end up being incorrect.

Students seem comfortable changing their minds about the best filter materials. One group predicts that “sand and gravel will be the worst” (6:37), then they test (7:01) and report that “sand and gravel worked perfect.” (7:30)

After testing the filter materials, Marlene asks students if any of their predictions were wrong, and then assures them by saying, “That’s okay.” (7:59)

Marlene mentions in her interview that her students “have to make their own mistakes. That’s the only way they’ll learn.” (9:15)